Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Thanksgiving Mud Bowl

Tom Foote, the official Flint Northern Viking, at halftime of the 1967 Thanksgiving Day game.

To help us celebrate Thanksgiving, Randy Gearhart passed along some great shots of the 1967 Thanksgiving Day game at Atwood Stadium between the Northern Vikings and the Central Indians. For obvious reasons, it came to be known as The Mud Bowl.

The endzone at Atwood.

Two minutes after a completing a fourth-quarter, 43-yard pass play that put the Vikings in scoring position, All-State co-captain William Wallace heads toward the end-zone to seal the 6-2 victory.

Before he was “The Church Guy,” Randy was Drum Major for the 1967-68 Flint Northern Viking Marching band. "You should have seen my white uniform after the Thanksgiving Day game!" he says. "Not a pretty sight."

6 comments:

Ah yes the mud bowl. My Mother (who went to Northern) would tell me stories about the Thanksgiving Day football game between Flint Central and Flint Northern. She said she and her sisters when every year, and by the time that they got home my Grandmother would be putting dinner on the table. I wish I could have seen Flint then.

Randy, I recently discovered this site and low and behold there is my old slot car racing pal from Mallery Street. I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing your posts and seeing the pics of your family. I remember them well. I can almost smell your moms home made bread. I'll have to admit it was a bit disturbing to see Nancy and Jim as "grown-ups". To this day, I don't think I have heard anyone play "Surf City" on the clarinet quite like you. I've been living in Marquette MI since 1973 and am near the end of my career as a special ed. teacher. Take care buddy. John B.

A special ed teacher. Good for you--and good for all those you have helped through the years. Congratulations!

I recently came across a picture of that slot car set that we had set up to simulate a "real" accident. We were very creative!

I also remember one night in your living room listening to the radio and hearing The Dave Clark 5's latest release. We called the radio station to get the name--"Bits and Pieces." I did like them better than the Beatles--must have been the sax player.

Mom' still baking bread. She doing well and lives in Davison now. You're probably smelling the bread from there.

John, I shall never forget those "way cool" experimental cars your dad used to bring home--especially the one that didn't have a steering wheel. A Buick, wasn't it? Had a knob that you turned? Am I dreaming this stuff?

It's great to hear from you after all these years. God bless!

Randy

Oh, and I'm sure that you have NEVER heard another clarinet performace quite like mine--quite sure! :^)

Yes, those were special days. We'd bundle up, take a thermos of hot chocolate, and make the trek down to Atwood, watch the game, and then head back home for turkey and the Lions game. It would be about halftime before you'd start feeling you toes again. Man, that concrete was cold! But, worth it? You bet!

Thanksgiving was always such a special day. My dad & his brothers graduated from Central, My mom and her family graduated from Northern. We went to every game from when I can remember. These mud bowls were pretty wild. I was fortunate to play in '73 and '74.

There are DVDs available for many of the "Turkey Day" games. Here's a link to a page I put together for the '74 game. http://1974tdg.kwrhodes.com.The proceeds go to help renovate Atwood stadium. Which from the pictures you can find with Google, looks like it's coming along nice enough.

It was muddy in then '64 game. I lost my shoe in it and kept on marching. Got my picture in the paper. Northern won 15-0. The team wore shirts that said "Beat Central" and we did. There quarterback for Central I think broke his leg. My future husband was playing for Central and I still rib him about that game.

Thanks for commenting. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.

"Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City" by Gordon Young

Support Flint Expatriates

If you'd like to help offset the operating costs of Flint Expatriates, feel free to donate any amount, however small. (We're talking $1-$5 here.) The goal is extremely modest — more profits than AutoWorld!
If Paypal isn't an option for you, simply email me at the Flint Expatriates World Headquarters, also known as my living room, and I'll provide a mailing address: gyoung(at)flintexpats(dot)com.

Google Analytics

DMCA Notice

Flintexpats.com respects the intellectual property of others.

If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement and is accessible on this site, you may notify our copyright agent, as set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). For your complaint to be valid under the DMCA, you must provide the following information when providing notice of the claimed copyright infringement:

* A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed

* Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of the infringing activity and that is to be removed

* Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address

* A statement that the complaining party "in good faith believes that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law"

* A statement that the "information in the notification is accurate", and "under penalty of perjury, the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed"

The above information must be submitted as a written, faxed or emailed notification to the following Designated Agent: Attn: DMCA Office, Flintexpats.com, 418 Anderson St., San Francisco, CA 94110, gyoung@flintexpats.com.

WE CAUTION YOU THAT UNDER FEDERAL LAW, IF YOU KNOWINGLY MISREPRESENT THAT ONLINE MATERIAL IS INFRINGING, YOU MAY BE SUBJECT TO HEAVY CIVIL PENALTIES. THESE INCLUDE MONETARY DAMAGES, COURT COSTS, AND ATTORNEYS’ FEES INCURRED BY US, BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER, OR BY ANY COPYRIGHT OWNER’S LICENSEE THAT IS INJURED AS A RESULT OF OUR RELYING UPON YOUR MISREPRESENTATION. YOU MAY ALSO BE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR PERJURY.

This information should not be construed as legal advice, for further details on the information required for valid DMCA notifications, see 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3).

Flint Expatriates

A blog for the long-lost residents of the Vehicle City by Gordon Young

"I grew up on the Eastside and recall the unexplained pride I felt when the 3:30 Buick factory whistle blew and the roughly dressed workers poured out of the General Motors labyrinth swinging their lunch pails. Some were headed for home and some for the corner bar, but all with the determined step of an army after a battle won. I somehow felt as if I were a part of this giant assembly line and the city it fed."